Macron: Giving Russia guarantees is like capitulating
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French President Emmanuel Macron recently said on French TV that Europe should give Russia security guarantees against its participation in peace negotiations. Ukraine and the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia distance themselves from Macron’s thoughts. I mean it’s like capitulating. Feel free to read an earlier blog about this.
Peace negotiations about what then?
As I see it, there is no purpose in peace negotiations on Russia’s terms. The conditions Russia set before invading Ukraine were so extreme that there is no basis for negotiation. They meant, among other things, that NATO should be withdrawn from all areas that were not part of the original NATO. That is to say, the Baltic countries should be virtually defenseless.
That Russia should decide on other countries’ foreign and defense policy is not acceptable. A country must decide for itself which alliance it wants to belong to. Russia, like other countries, has a guarantee through international law for the country’s borders. It is Russia which, through its aggressiveness towards neighboring countries, is causing them to seek an alliance with NATO.
Even before the war in Ukraine, Russia has shown through several small wars in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine that they do not respect other countries’ borders. It is this fear that has caused former Eastern European countries to look west.
Russia must come up with guarantees before peace negotiations
It is Russia and not Europe that must come up with guarantees before any peace negotiations can become relevant. The aggressive and attacking party in the war is Russia. In the hypothetical case that NATO gives Russia a guarantee not to expand eastward, what will Macron achieve with that? How will the negotiations continue? Then Russia has all the cards in its hand. Should there be negotiations about which areas in Ukraine will be taken over by Russia with Macron’s blessing?
As I consider it, a peace negotiation can only take place when all Russian forces have been withdrawn from the whole of Ukraine, including Crimea. What can then be negotiated is this:
- How close to other countries’ borders can Russia have military units?
- Abolition of all Russian nuclear weapons
- How much will Russia pay in war reparations to cover damage to Ukraine?
- Compensation for injured Ukrainians and survivors of dead Ukrainians as a result of the war.
- Creation of an international court for war crimes.
- The creation of an international peacekeeping force on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron’s proposal is a mockery of the West’s willingness to support Ukraine.
Sources:
Kyiv blasts Macron for suggesting security guarantees for Moscow – POLITICO
Macron blasted for saying Moscow needs ‘security guarantees’ to end the war | Euronews